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UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



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AN 
ORATION 



UEFOTtE THE 



RE-UNION SOCIETY 



VERMONT OFFICERS, 

IK THE 

KEPKESENTATIVES' HALL, MO^^TPELIER, VT. 
October 2 5th5 1866. 

By CGL. ^y. G. V 



..a.-'^ 



,r^^ 



^ " AN 



o n ^ T I o ]sr 



BEFORE THE 



EE-UNION SOCIETY 



TERMONT OITICERS, 

IN THE 

REPRESENTATIVES' HALL, MONTPELIER, VT., 
October 25^, 1866. 



By col. W. G. VEAZEY, 

rutland, vt. 






^^iv »fi " y 



RUTLAND : 
TUTTLE, GAY & CO., PEINTERS, 

18G6. 



5"3 3 



' ¥ 

Vf 



In House of Representatives, 

October 26th, 1866. 

Mr. Walker of Ludlow, oifered the following resolution 
which was adopted on the part of the House. 

Resolved by the Senate mid House of Representatives : 
That the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate 
be directed to procure to be printed for the use of the General 
Assembly one thousand copies of the Oration delivered on the 
evening of October 25th, by Col. Wheelock G. Veazeyj 
before the Vermont Re-union Society of Vermont Officers. 

JOHN H. FLAGG, 

Cleric, 

In Senate, October 26, 1866. 
Adopted in concurrence. 

HENRY CLARK, 

Secretary. 



ORATION. 



Mr. President, Comrades, Ladies and Gentle- 
men : — The words of introduction which our distin- 
guished President has been pleased to use, scarcely 
tend to diminish the embarrassment and solicitude 
with which I come to a discharge of the duties as- 
signed to me upon this occasion of fraternal reunion. 
We assemble from our scattered hills and valleys to 
mingle salutations, to review the days of camps and 
battles, and to gather renewed courage from the mag- 
netic touch of a comrade's elbow, for the unfinished 
duties of life. It is an occasion when we feel crowd- 
ing in upon our minds memories of mingled joy and 
sadness ; memories net only of heroic achievement, 
but of fallen comrades ; an occasion not for cold spec- 
ulative discussion, however profound or ingenious, 
but rather for the expression of sentiment and patri- 
otic feeling. But in my solicitude, lest I fail to do 
justice to the occasion, I do not forget that in the 
bosoms of those whom I specially address, beats the 
soldier s warm and generous heart, that brooks no 
unkindly criticism of a comrade's fault. 

It is not unprecedented for a post-revolutionary 
period to be marked by evil forebodings, and often by 
imminent public peril ; greater, even, than in the 



height of the revolution itself. Meeting as we do 
to-night in the midst of such a period, it has seemed 
to me not unwise to cast our eyes over some of the 
features of the struggle, and perhaps gather inspira- 
tion from bright examples, for the work which the 
perils of the times impose upon us. 

Until within less than a decade of years, it is doubt- 
ful whether any generation was ever the recipient, or 
in the enjoyment of so great substantial political 
blessings, as the present generation, in this republic. 
Almost perfect liberty, yet without license, almost uni- 
versal prosperity, yet without general dissoluteness, 
were diffused over our broad domain. Compared 
with our government in its practical effect on the in- 
dividual, not only every form that preceded it, but 
even the ideal republics of philosophers, were but ru- 
diments in governmental polity. The hand of the 
State rested so lightly on the individual that he 
scarcely perceived the touch. The fruits of repre- 
sentative republicanism were being enjoyed, while yet 
the ordeal of internal disruption had not tested its 
strength as a form of government. In the struggle 
for liberty, or, perhaps, better, in the constant effort 
to suppress liberty, which constitutes about all there 
is of history, liberty had occasionally gained a partial 
triumxA. The words democracy and republic not un- 
frequently occur on the pages of history, but often 
misused as descriptive of government; oftener indeed 
descriptive of tyranny than liberty. Where intelli- 
gence prevails at all it is only under the guise of liberty 
that complete tyranny can be exercised. Yet at long 
intervals and for brief periods, the will of the people 
has formed the government, but generally so imperfect 



and under such unfavorable circumstances, that the 
fruits of liberty to the citizen were scarcely less bit- 
ter than those of the tyranny which preceded, and 
into which the people's government so soon relapsed. 
With us, security in person and property, freedom of 
speech and the press, taxation not a burden, labor 
honorable and rewarded, merit recognized, property 
distributed, knowledge diffused, full religious tolera- 
tion, poverty cared for, crime punished, nationality of 
spirit, a worthy ancestry, historic renown, all these, 
my comrades, constituted but a part of the blessings 
of free government profusely strewn along our path- 
way. Even the price paid by the fathers of the Ee- 
public, the expenditure of blood and treasure, the 
sacrifice and suffering through that long, dark night 
of struggle with oppression, which preceded the 
morning dawn of Independence, is not adequate for 
the privileges which we enjoyed. 

Add even the story of the schooling through which 
the fathers passed, in preparation for their struggle 
for independence, in that seven years' fearful strife, 
so wide-spread that the sun set not on a peaceful 
quarter of the globe ; that contest when in the East, 
Clive, just from the accountant's desk, led British bat- 
talions to the conquest of an empire, wider and richer 
than ever paled before the Roman eagles ; when in 
Europe, Federick the Great rose against a gigantic 
combination to the "last glittering peak" of heroic at" 
tainment; and when in the West, Montcalm and 
Wolfe, upon the heights of Abraham, 

" Bought by their death a deathless fame;" 

add, I say, the heroic and perilous part which the 



fathers perfermed in this conflict in preparation for 
the nobler struggle for independence that followed, 
and we still have not a price equal to the measure of 
privileges meted out to us under the benign influence 
of republican liberty. 

So far, in national emergencies as well as in indi- 
vidual protection, the Republic had proved sufficient. 
With but comparatively slight interruption, peace, 
disseminating its untold flivors, had attended the na- 
tion up through its growth to a speedy manhood. Ex- 
cept in mimicry upon some festive day, no "piercing 
fife or thumping (]rum," or soldier's tramp, had wak- 
ened the echoes of our mountain slopes. Peace, 
prosperity, fiaternity, quality, had fallen to our fav- 
ored lot. Looking back through the tornado of war 
that followed — through the tears, the pangs, the 
death, seems not unlike the dreamy view of age back 
through the vicissitudes of a stormy life to the joyous 
days of youth. 

Though not fully appreciated, the blessings of this 
free government, based upon the equality of man, 
were none the less real. The enjoyment of this 
goodly heritage, without price from us,, rendered it 
none the less valuable. Having attained, so far as 
human experience cou^d judge, and human wisdom 
devise, the perfection of government, there devolved 
upon us the triple duty to preserve, to increase, to 
transmit the priceless inheritance. 

To preserve it; — how Itttle did we know the mag- 
nitude of our duty, the weight of our responsibility, 
the mighty efforts in store for us. To preserve it; — 
so secure did we regard ourselves in our estate, that 
these words seemed well nigh like meaningless dec- 



lamation. But now, you, my comrades, you who have 
seen death 

"by sudden blow, 

By wastin;? play;ue, by tortures slow. 

By mine or breach, by steel or ball, 

Known all his shapes, and scorned them all;" 

and slill more you, parents and widows, brothers and 
sisters, who wear the weeds of mourning, and bear 
in your bosoms bruised and broken hearts that time 
cannot heal, for the valiant son, or husband, or brother, 
whose hfe went out in the noble defense; you, I say, 
can feci, if not tell, something of the fearful depth of 
meaning which those words embrace. That this was, 
and is, a duty, a solemn duty, none here will deny, 
and none but traitors ever did deny. To fail in this 
duty would be a depth of degradation to which loy- 
alty could not descend. To Ml in it would be 
treason. 

In the Declaration of Independence the fathers 
planted themselves upon two fundamental principles : 
First, the equality of man ; second, the right of a 
people under certain circumstances to cast off their 
allegiance to their government. A revolution based 
upon these principles resulted in success. From this 
revolution emerged the great political event of his- 
tory — our Representative Federal Republic. "With a 
love of liberty intensified by the fires of the revolu- 
tion, and fully confident that liberty was safe only in 
a complete recognition of the principle that men are 
equal, the fathers hastened to bind their countrymen 
to this truth by placing it foremost in their bills of 
rights. Thence onward it has stood, recognized in all 
the fullness of its meaning by a portion of the 
2 



^0 

country, denied in its application to a certain race by 
the remainder. Thence arose the unhappy struggle, 
the " irrepressible conflict." 

On the one side was arrayed self-interest and the 
prejudice of race — on the other consistency and jus- 
tice. The unparalleled prosperity of the nation, its 
giant strides to power, our own conceit, at times wtU 
nigh closed our eyes to justice. Then the conflict 
would temporarily subside. Our ears were continually 
soothed by the lullaby of compromise. At first all 
acknowledged the inconsistency of slavery with equal- 
ity. At length a portion, blinded by self-interest, be- 
came the friends of slavery, and necessarily in the 
same degree, the enemies of equality, j^s a nation, 
we proclaimed equality, we practiced injustice. The 
constant encroachments of slavery naturally consoli- 
dated the power of liberty. The equality, which 
slavery denied to its victims, it at length denied to 
the friends of freedom. Constitutional rights became 
sacred only as construed in favor of slavery; and the 
first successful assertion of these rights in behalf of 
freedom, in a contest precipitated by slavery, became 
to the latter power the apology for treason. 

Forgetting in the delirium of treasonable intoxica- 
tion, the consecrated blood of the revolution, forget- 
ting the injunctions of the fathers of the Eepublic, 
forgetting the blessings of a benign government, for- 
getting the vow^s plighted to liberty and loyalty, the 
petted children of the Republic, 

" With insratitude more stron;); than traitors' arms," 

raised their hands with hellish fury to strike down 
free government and civil liberty. From the recoil of 
that blow we date, not only the freedom of a race 



11 

of human beings, but the disinthrallment of liberty 
herself. 

When the fathers fou^iht for Independence, it was 
with protestations of loyalty, and because denied the 
usual privileges of loyalty. Had their efforts proved 
unavailing, it would nut have been considered fatal to 
liberty. But after our long experiment of free gov- 
ernment under ch'cumstances so favorable to its de- 
veloptnentj if liberty could not exist here in her own 
chosen home, amid a people whose genius is hostility 
to oppression, whose early history is successful resist, 
ance to tyranny, whose will is not more the subject 
than the governor of the law, well might mankind 
ask in dispair, where can the experiment again be 
made ■? 

Fortunately for humanity this question needed no 
answer; for here in her own citadel, liberty found 
her defense in the stout hearts and strong arms of 
millions of freemen. It was a rare fortune, my com- 
rades, that God raised you up to, when Ue made you 
a part of the grand uprising of '61. When the col- 
ossus of France aroused his assembled hosts under the 
pyramids of Egypt to the full intensity of enthusi- 
asm, by reminding them that foity centuries were 
looking down upon their deeds, the nations of earth 
applauded the scene. It was the breath of genius 
inspiring the machinery of its creation with the fiery 
life of heroism. Yet in grandeur and importance 
how trifling the scene in comparison with the rush of 
the hosts of freedom in America to resist the rebels' 
onset upon civil liberty. No gaze of forty centuries 
from towering pyramids, nor the magnetic influence 
of the lips of genius, roused the northern heart; 



t2 



but when the clash of resounding arms came sweep- 
ing up on the Southern breeze, it was to the North- 
man's ears the warning note of liberty echoing 
through the vaulted heavens ; and he was trans- 
formed from the peaceful citizen to the rugged sol- 
dier by an influence within, more potent than the 
appeals of orator}^, or the magnetism of genius. 

Feeble would be my lips to describe the warlike 
attitude of our own galhint State, perched high upon 
these green hills above the foul atmosphere of trea- 
son, in response to the call to arms. Not more 
quickly did Clan Alpine's warriors ansAver " through 
copse and heath" the shrill whistle of Roderick Dhu, 
than did these bold mountains bristle with thinking 
bayonets. The men who answered this call were not 
mercenaries, men of low degree, but likened most, 
perhaps, after the heroes of the Revolution, to the 
Iron-sides of Cromwell ; men of •' grave character, 
moral, diligent, accustomed to reflect, and zealous for 
public liberty ; induced to take up arms, not by the 
pressure of want, not by the love of novelty and li- 
cense, not by the arts of recruiting officers;' but by 
the highest sense of political duty, the preservation 
of the Republic ; recognizing as binding upon them 
the obligations of the founders of the nation, when 
they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their 
sacred honor, for the independence of the colonies; 
not unmindful perhaps that the glory of preserving 
is equal to that of founding an empire. Thirty thou- 
sand and more of such men left the fields, the shops, 
the desks of Vermont to swell the ranks of our 
armies. Thirty thousand and more of such men, my 
comrades, has it been your honor, with that of others, 



13 

whom the grave separates from this happy re-imion, 
to lead against the hosts of treason. 

Are the familiar words of the poet true, that 

"Men, high uiinded men, 
Men who their duties know- 
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain," 

constitute a state ? Then what a state is ours! Would 
you, men of Vermont, know the record of this gallant 
b;ind, this Green Mountain armyl Then read the 
history of the RebelHon. Follow these worthy sons 
of a noble State from your quiet firesides to the fields 
of their achievements, to well nigh all the gory fields 
of the Rebellion. 

Hear them first at Bethel uttering deep curses 
upon the incompetency tlijit restrained them fiom per- 
foiming their mission of chastisement upon the rebel 
horde. See them on the plains of Manassas, uncon- 
scious of defeat, reluctantly following our retreating 
columns before a virtually beaten foe. Again behold 
them wading the turbid stream of Warwick, with 
gun and cartridge box held high above its waters, 
pressing -through a leaden hail, against a sheltered 
enemy vastly superior in numbers, driving him from 
his intrenchments and holding them against furious 
assaults until ordered back, after half their brave 
hearts had ceased to beat. 

Follow them through from the Chickahominy to 
the James, stemming the tide of disaster, burning 
with shame at those nightly evolutions that abandoned 
the fields of daily victory to a defeated foe. 

So on through, wherever rebellion showed its '' up- 
rearCii and abutting fronts," there stood Vermont ; 
at Antietam, turning back the march of rebellion 



44 

Korthward ; at Fredericksburgh, storming IMarie's 
Heights, and planting her standards upon those, mem- 
orable hills; again on that out-stretched battle-field, 
from the Rapidan to the Appomattox, running through 
from May to April, every day garnering up laurels 
that would have adorned the cha plots of Roman Em- 
perors in their triumphal returns from the conquest 
of Empires; in the valley of the Shenandoah, snatch- 
ing victory from defeat; at Port Hudson and else- 
where on the banks of the Mississippi ; up the Red 
river ; at the defenses of Mobile — everywhere indeed 
throughout the vast arena of conflict, making up a 
record which the most brilliant achievements of war 
never eclipsed. ^ 

And here I may be allgwed to pause, and dwell 
for one moment upon two days, in particular, which 
Vermont and the nation will ever hold in grateful 
remembrance; not that they are exceptional but 
types of many days that added so largely to the fame 
of the Green Mountain State ; and, at the same time 
serving to illustrate both the unparalleled soldierly 
qualities which her sons can acquire by experience ; 
and tlieir native, untrained valor in the midst of great 
emergencies : one the 3d of July, 1863, the other the 
19th of October, 1864. My blood thrills at the 
thought of the glory which the sons of Vermont won 
upon those memorable days. 

It will be remsmbered that after the disastrous bat- 
tles of Fredericksburgh and Chancellorsville, the 
rebels induced no doubt by the gloom that had over- 
spread the country, undertook their last great inva- 
sion of the North. It was a hopeful day for the her- 
esy of secession. Traitors in the North, in ecstacy 



15 

over national misfortunes, had begun to assume an 
open defiance of law. The term of service of many 
troops had expired, or was about to expire. The op- 
portune moment seemed to have arrived for the rebels 
to carry '•' the bloody course of war " to Northern 
hearthstones, and by one overwhelming blow destroy 
forever the vestiges of American freedom. 

The passage of the Potomac is soon forced, and the 
centre of war is transferred from Fredericksburgh to 
Gettysburgh. For the first time the Potomac army is 
to meet its old foe upon the free soil of the North. 
Upon the battle to ensue- are to be staked the hopes of 
the Republic, the hopes of liberty. No brave men 
can be spared from such a battle. Stretched along 
from Bull Run to the Rappahannock, a brigade of 
men made up of Vermont bone, muscle, and brain, 
have luxuriated nearly through their nine months' 
term of easy service. But their days of ease have 
passed. Through heat, and rain, shoeless, blistered 
and weary, they find themselves on the evening of July 
1st, face to face with the victorious legions of Lee. 
Before them lie the maimed and lifeless forms of those 
who had that day fallen. The morrow's sun will 
bring their first dread reality of battle. For the first 
time they stand side by side with the veterans of the 
grand old army of the Potomac. Their term of ser- 
vice is about to expire. This will be their only oppor- 
tunity as a brigade to strike for country and honor. 
They have the example of the old regiments to emu- 
late. Great are their duties and responsibilities. 
But they are true sons of Vermont. The opening day 
brings the expected battle. With varying success it 
rages along from center to left and left to center. 



16 

At last the lines give way. Dingy squads of men 
come streaming back through the smoke of battle. 
Re-enforcements are called for. Then the generous 
Doubleday, to Avhoni Vermont owes so much for sefcur- 
ing to her sons the credit to Avhich they are justly 
due, rides along our lines, and his clear command is 
heard above the din of conflict, " Forward, the light 
flying brigade." Quickly they present their breasts 
to the deadly missiles and pressing forward to the 
breach, turn back the flooding tide of battle. This 
ends the second day of Gettysburgh with the standards 
of Vermont in the front. The next day brings a re- 
newal of the bloody scene. Throughout the morning 
furious assaults are made upon the right flank. Ex- 
cept the left centre, every part of our lines have been 
tried. Lee has heard that this is held by new and 
untried troops. From his observatory he sees their 
unsheltered position. Break through that and the 
Potomac army is destroyed forever. The veteran di- 
vision of the rebel General Picket, that has never 
known defeat, is still fresh. Quickly it is formed for 
the charge. Fort\TO hours, one hundred and forty 
pieces of rebel cannon pour their deadly contents into 
the ranks of these sons of Vermont untrained to the 
sho6k of battle. By all analogy and experience, hu- 
man endurance has become exhausted. The founda- 
tions of earth are shaken by the furious cannonade, 
but not the lines of these brave men. There they 
stand upon those bloody slope?, far to the front of 
other lines, as firm as the hills of their own green 
Mountain home, and receive and shatter the charging 
columns of treason amid the unrestrained applause of 
the veterans of other corps who were the admiring 



17 

spectators of the stupendous tragedy. Getteysburgh 
is won, and the brow of Vermont's gallant soldiers are 
garlanded with the laurels of the victory from which 
the wave of Rebellion ever after receded. 

Time will not allow me to detail the events that 
preceded the 19th day of October, 1861. The She- 
nandoah Valley had again become the active theatre 
of war. The intrepid Sheridan had pushed his victo- 
rious army, comprised largely of Vermont troops, far 
up the Valley. Smarting under repeated defeats, and 
fully conscious of the importance of holding this valley, 
the rebels had quietly assembled a large and well ap- 
pointed force near Middletown, and resolved upon one 
of those sudden and overwhelming strokes that not 
unfrequently have decided the fortune of a war. 

On the morning of the 19th of October circumstan- 
ces combined to render the success of the contempla- 
ted blow exceedingly probable. The victories that had 
so lately crowned the Union' arms, rendered an attack 
from the enemy improbable. Sheridan was absent. 
The elements even were favorable to a surprise. The 
foggy atmosphere of early morning covered the rebels' 
stealthy movements. No sound broke the all-perva-' 
ding stillness. While the victors of recent fields were 
resting in the heavy slumber of over-tasked nature, 
just as the first streaks of morning pierced the East- 
ern horizon, the rush, the shout, the opening volley, 
startled the sleepers to duty. The surprise was com- 
plete. In front, in flank, in rear, volleys poured from 
an unseen foe. But the hardened veterans cannot 
yield without a struggle. Blow is returned for blow. 
One position after another is taken, but the rebel 
onset is irresistible. Thus passes morning into mid- 



48 

day. Many have fallen, more have been captured, 
camps and artillery, gone. The fruits of past vic- 
tories seem slipping away. But at this crisis Sheri- 
dan arrives upon the field, and riding along the lines, 
he reins up in front of the Vermont regiments and 
inquires, what troops are these. " The Sixth Corps — 
the Vermont Brigade," is shouted simultaneously from 
the ranks. " We are all right !" exclaimed the Gen- 
eral, and swinging his hat above his head he passed 
off to the right " amid the exultant shouts of the 
men." Soon the defensive is abandoned and the 
offensive assumed, and foremost in that murderous 
charge, that annihilated the last rebel army of the val- 
ley, were the standards of Vermont. 

But, comrades, the history of these and many other 
days is made, it is fresh in our memory, and we need 
not be our own eulogists. 

Had you selected one to address you to-night who 
was not of your number, one accustomed to stand up 
on great occasions and portray the heroic deeds of 
brave men, one whose lips were eloquent with well 
selected words of eulogy, he, inspired by his theme, 
would have dwelt long upon the scenes to which I have 
only referred. He would have told you of the first 
regiment, the militia of Vermont, the school which 
graduated more than half a regiment of officers. He 
would have dwelt upon the glory won hy our two reg- 
iments upon the shores of the gulf, and amid the 
bayous of the Mississippi. He would have spoken of 
that regiment which was so long the piide, because 
the best of the eighteenth corps, and the first of the 
army to tread the streets of Richmond ; of the gal- 
lant Tenth, which at Monocacy and elsewhere separate 



19 

from other "Vermont regiments, won imperishable fame 
in honorable competition with the brave troops of 
sister States ; of that last offspring of Vermont, which 
ere its ranks were filled took up its march Richmond- 
ward, and scarcely halted except for battle, until 
called up for its final muster-out ; of the sharp- 
shooters and batteries always summoned to the post 
of danger ; of our ubiquitous cavalry which upon 
seventy-two hard fought fields rolled up trophies 
of victory as the fabled giants " upon Ossa rolled the 
leafy Olympus." 

And he would have dwelt upon the deeds of our 
** Old Brigade," which became like ihe Old Gunrd of 
France, in the resplendent glory of the Enfipire, the 
pride and envy of the army ; not the least of whose 
honors it was to win and retain the confidence and 
admiration of those two eminent Generals, the one 
that skillful soldier* of Vermont whose genius alone 
could relieve a beleagured and discomfited army in 
the defences of Chattanooga from what appeared to 
others to be an impending fatality, and whose lofty 
conceptions carried victory through the clouds of 
heaven over a confident and previously victorious 
enemy ; the other, that rugged veteran,-|- of the West, 
under whom the brigade reached the pinnacle of heroic 
achievement and to whose careful training and sol- 
dierly examp!^ the brilliant career and surpassing 
fame of the brigade are largely due. 

He would also have told you more of that younger 
brigade with a briefer but not less glorious service. 
He would have presented in detail the Herculean 

*Maj. General W. F. Smith. 
tMaj. General W. T. H. Brooks. 



20 

efforts of our little State in the great war, the facts 
and figures of statistics, and by comparison with the 
efforts of other States in other times have enabled 
you better to appreciate the' magnitude of the task 
performed by Vermont, in the struggle for national 
preservation. All these things circumstances compel 
me to leave to other and better hands. 

But, men of Vermont, would you have the imme- 
diate, unmistakable proof of the prowess that has 
added so much to the lustre of your escutcheon ? 
Then raise your eyes to these tattered colors that adorn 
these halls with suggestions of glory which we may 
well allow to conceal the skill and handiwork of the 
architect. These pierced and shattered fragments 
tell, with an eloquence loftier than human lips 
can utter, where stood Vermont in the furor of 
battle. 

" They tell of life that calmly looked on death. 

Of peeiless valor, and of trust sublime, 

Of costly sacrifice, of holiest faith, 

Of lofty hopes that ended not with time." 

Thank God ! not a single flag did our Vermont 
soldiers surrender during the four years of war ; not 
one of these sacred emblems ever felt the polluting 
touch of a traitor's hand. There let them hang so 
long as peace shall remain within our borders, — Glo- 
rious Ensigns of Liberty, Noble Inspirators of pat- 
riotism, Silent Monitors of duty. But should liberty 
again be assailed, should the pestilence of war again 
breathe upon us, then return them to the front, their 
wonted place in the hour of battle, and there you will 
find strong arms and brave hearts to bear them on to 
renewed victory. 



21 

But, after all, how feeble are the facts and figures 
of statistics to portray the magnitude of sacrifice 
which Vermont has lain upon the alter of free gov- 
ernment. Our eyes have become so accustomed to 
large figures that they scarcely attract attention. 
But could we go down into the tabernacles of the 
hearts of the proud fathers, the fond mothers, the 
devoted wives, the affectionate sisters of those '* who 
have submitted to the last dread test of patriotism, 
and laid down their lives for their country," there 
might we behold the real though sad picture of 
heroic sacrifice to loyalty and duty. 

"What, to the heart stricke^n by the loss of son or 
husband^ or brother, are untold millions of treasure 
in comparison with the single life crushed under the 
burden of patriotic duty ! In the fullness of generous 
sympathy we mingle our tears with those of the be- 
reaved ones over the ashes of the patriot dead. 
Gladly do we award the full mead of praise both to 
the living and dead for their noble sacrifice. 

Not less of praise and admiration do we extend to 
the untitled patriot who, without hope of reward or 
emolument, attested with his blood the sincerity of 
his devotion, than to the titled chief Side by side in 
death they become the equal worthy offering for 
freedom. When generations to come, in the full fru- 
ition of the blessings which the triumph of free gov- 
ernment will perpetuate, shall reflect upon the price 
of their inheritance, they will drop the tear of grati- 
tude alike upon the graves of all those who lost their 
lives in the noble struo;:gle. 

CD 

At the first Re union of Vermont officers, while 
gathered around the festive board, a sentiment was 



22 

t)frered to our fallen comrades. Standing with bowed 
heads, that joyous assembly responded in the sublime 
eloquence of silence. No feeble words of mine can 
add to that delicate and expressive tribute of our re- 
gard and affection. 

To the broken home circles there is the sweet con- 
solation of the highest duty performed ; the pleasant 
thought that immeasurable ages will sacredly cherish 
the memory of the great service. To us, comrades, 
there remains not only to mourn their loss, but to 
emulate their bright example, to enjoy the fruits of 
their deeds, and to fulfill the mission of duty for 
which they offered tbeir^priceless lives. 

We would erect above their numerous graves, not 
the broken shaft, as indicative of an incomplete career, 
but the full rounded monolith, the emblem of a per- 
fected life. 

It has seemed to me not inappropriate now that the 
effort to revolutionize the government by a resort to 
arms has failed, and the tocsin of war is hushed, that 
we should address ourselves briefly to the unfinished 
mission of the soldier. And here I would be glud to 
speak of his general duties as a citizen ; the duties of 
soldiers to each other ; their social relations ; the 
duties and pledges of society to them. I would gladly 
enter my most earnest protest against, I fear, a grow- 
ing idea in the public mind, that the soldiers returned 
from the war full of vice, dissipated, and dangerous 
to the peace and well being of society. As applied to 
the true soldiers of Vermont, it is a calumny unwor- 
thy to fall from patriotic lips. 

On these and kindred topics there is much to say, 
but mindful of the more pleasing festivities to follow, 



23 



I hasten to notice the national obh'gations which the 
collapse of the rebellion and other causes have im- 
povsed upon us. 

The unwarranted attempt at revolution by force 
brought our army into being. I say unM arranted, not 
only in the sense of causeless, but in the broad sense 
that revolution by force can never be warrantable un- 
der a form of government like ours, however great 
may be the wrongs which it seeks to remedy. 

The arbitrament of arms is defensible only as the 
last resort, that is, the resort after every other effort at 
settlement is exhausted, every other remedy consistent 
with honor and justice, failed. Under the strictest 
application of this prirciple, the early patriots justi- 
fied in their own consciences, and in the eyes of 
mankind, their appeal to this last resort. Success 
crowned their effort. In the constitution which fol- 
lowed, they provided against the necessity of revolu- 
tion by a resort to arms as a redress for wrongs, by 
placing the government in the hands of the people, 
by putting within their control the remedy of revolu- 
tion, by ballot. Every election is not necessarily a 
revolution because it may result in a continuation of 
the political policy that preceded. But when an 
election results in the choice of a class of men to 
office who represent principles, opposite, or antagonis- 
tic;, to those of their predecessors, it is revolution, as 
much as those brought about by a resort to arms. 

The right of revolution by force as a remedy, 
cannot exist without the necessity of force. This ne- 
cessity cannot arise with us, because the people are 
themselves the law-makers, the rulers, not in the 
weakness of a democracy, but in the strength of a 



"24 

representative republic, in a confederation of sover- 
eignties with paramount central power, a form of 
government where, 

" jarrins: interests of tlicmselTes create, 

The according music of a well mixed State." 

The late rebellion is a striking illustration of the 
folly of a minority undertaking to redress alleged 
wrongs by force, which they could not do by ballot. 
In the natural order of things the same majority that 
would beat them at the ballot, would beat them with 
the bayonet. The rebels' attempt at revolution was 
therefore without right, without necessity, and without 
reasonable prospect of success. The loyal citizen sol- 
diery of the United States made it a failure. But 
out of this attempted revolution grew a reform. In- 
stead of overturning the Republic, its fires purified 
the nation. Instead of destroying free government, 
it resulted in making the subjects of the government 
free. Instead of enslaving the free, it freed the 
slave. This is the reformation, the national regenera- 
tion. Hitherto the contest has been against slavery 
legalized. It is now to secure to all the fruits of 
legalized freedom. 

The army has done the work of regeneration, — 
There remains to it to do the work of re-organization. 
This is not the work of conquered traitors. This 
work will be complete when all men whom the con- 
stitution recognizes as free, shall enjoy the full rights 
of freedom. Ee-organization, other than upon princi- 
ples of justice and political equality, is forfeiture of 
the fruits of victory. To call men free who have no 
rights in court, who have no protection in person and 
property, who cannot hold office or be represented, 



25 

who have neither the right, nor hope of the right to 
vote, is an insult to the common sense of mankind, 
a stigma upon the statutes of free government. 

No citizen soldier of a republic has a right to plead 
that he has completed his public duty. Our duties 
as soldiers, we confidently hope, are ended; our duties 
as citizens may have just begun. In gathering up 
the disordered members of the Republic and restoring 
each to its own proper sphere — in garnering up the 
fruits of victory over treason, our aid is needed. — 
Without it, freedom may be in greater peril than 
when we met treason in open combat. In rendering 
this aid, in performing this duty, we must rise above 
all personal considerations. If occasion require it, 
we must disregard the forgetfulness of those who 
made unnecessary pledges of emoluments to induce 
us to peril our lives for the country. And above all, 
we must scorn to appropriate the spoils of govern- 
ment patronage, if fed to us from the hand that has 
just been raised against the government. The soldier 
at the public crib by leave of traitors, is an unthink- 
ing ox in the shambles 

"Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, 
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood." 

The overthrow of the rebel power in the field, is not 
the destruction of treason in the rebel heart. Of the 
three stages through which treason naturally and 
usually passes in its mission" of destruction, the first, 
war, is ended; the second, assassination, we hope, is 
drawing to a close ; the third, treachery in the na- 
tional councils, we fear, is only begun. To thwart 
this is a part of our unfinished mission. It is our old 
foe under the guise of loyalty, and many will be de- 



2^ 

ceived by the covering. Magnanimity to a fallen foe 
may,.bc extended to individuals to the full limit of 
chivalrous generosity, but not to the sacrifice of prin- 
ciples. Our vast numbers give us the power of com- 
pleting the reform, of perfecting a sound re-organiza- 
tion. Our silence may be fatal to these results. 

Southernism was always petulant, proud, arrogant, 
impetuous and aggressive ; qualities to be met by 
coolness, persistency and courage. 

On the 9th of April, 1865, the commander of the 
rebel armies, driven from the chief citadel of treason, 
by the steady fire and well directed blows of persist- 
ent courage, was summoned to surrender. The terms 
were frank, full, generous and decided. The sum- 
mons came from that imperturbable brain before 
which treason had learned to quail. Twelve months 
of constant attrition, had convinced Lee of the steady, 
fixed purpose of Grant, and in the humiliation of 
defeat he replied "The terms are accepted."* 

Let the plan of re-organization be based on firm 
principles of justice and equality ; let it be pressed 
with the same steady, determined courage with which 
you levelled your cannon at Petersburgh, and before 
which the Southron has ever quailed, both in the halls 
of Congress, and on the fields of battle, when arro- 
gating to himself privileges which the Constitution 
does not prescribe, and you will again hear the ac- 
claim coming up on the Southern breeze "The terms 

ARE ACCEPTED." 












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